“Alipay is committed to harnessing the power of AI to enhance user experience, ensuring that AI assistants like Zhixiaobao become valuable tools for everyone’s daily lives,” Ant Group Chairman Cyril Han said in a statement.
This group was Alibaba’s financial and payments subsidiary and was due to go public at the end of 2020, but the government halted the operation 48 hours earlier, when the company was valued at $34 billion.
The firm has since had to overhaul its business model to meet the demands of financial regulators, who last year fined it nearly $1 billion for “illegal” acts.
The company’s profits fell 10% in the first quarter of this year, according to Bloomberg News, which noted that it has lost more than 70% of its value since its failed IPO.
The launch in Shanghai on Thursday comes as tech giants Google, Meta and Microsoft are making a strong push into the AI market and are seeking greater integration with chatbots.
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